Senate set to add land to Broward

TALLAHASSEE — For the first time in at least a generation, Florida legislators are poised to redraw part of the map of South Florida, although the changes are the product of community consensus rather than controversy.

With the Senate likely to approve the boundary change today, the Legislature is set to move nearly 2,000 acres west of Boca Raton into Broward County. The change likely will turn agricultural land into home development.

After the vote, the process of changing county lines drawn by surveyors almost a century ago goes to Gov. Charlie Crist for his signature.

Since 1925, when boundaries between Florida's 67 counties were settled, the state's leaders have made 31 alterations. The last: a 1994 change between Levy and Citrus counties that moved the boundary along the Withlacoochee River.

The line between Palm Beach and Broward counties hasn't gone through any changes in decades, according to veteran planners. The last time Palm Beach County's boundaries were under review was in 1969, when a state government restructuring bill made an obscure change to the law governing the county border.

South Florida's current map was drawn in 1915, when Broward was created out of territory taken from Palm Beach and Dade (now Miami-Dade) counties.

"This is the first time in a long time the boundary is moved," said Palm Beach County planner Khurshid Mohyuddin.

The tract at issue, called "The Wedge" or "The Golden Triangle," is south of the Hillsboro Canal. To get to it, you have to travel Broward roads. The new law would make it part of the city of Parkland, in Broward.

Landowners, led by business and sports magnate H. Wayne Huizenga, want to build 2,800 homes on the land; Broward and Parkland leaders are receptive to the idea.

In exchange, the boundary change comes with a guarantee for Palm Beach County: Heavily traveled University Drive won't be extended west of Boca Raton, a guarantee sought by community activists who fear waves of new traffic in their area.

"This isn't an issue about taking a piece of land in Palm Beach County and giving it to Broward," said state Rep. Adam Hasner, R-Boca Raton, who sponsored the bill.

"What this bill is essentially doing is making Broward County everything below the Hillsboro Canal and making Palm Beach County everything above it."

The last major change in Palm Beach County's boundaries came in 1925, when former residents of northern Palm Beach County created Martin County. That change was fueled by a lack of roads in what's now rural Martin County, according to historians.

Fast-forward more than 80 years: Roads are also at the heart of the current boundary shift.

The wedge property, bound by two-lane Lox Road on the north, is only accessible from State Road 7 in Broward. When Broward's original boundaries were drawn, the triangle-shaped parcel was attached to Palm Beach County. But when the Hillsboro Canal was built in 1921, the land was disconnected from the rest of the county.

Providing public services to that area, now home to farmland and a concrete production plant, would be costly, Palm Beach County Administrator Bob Weisman said.

"The geographic condition of the land makes it a natural part of Broward County," Palm Beach County planner Isaac Hoyos said.

He chalked up the boundary change to a unique circumstance, and doesn't see other alterations anytime soon.

"I don't think it will create precedent," he said.

Josh Hafenbrack can be reached at jhafenbrack@sun-sentinel.com or 850-224-6214.